[q]I absolutely garden organically, even to releasing thousands of lady bugs, planting hundreds of earthworms and setting out praying mantis egg casings here and there. I use organic fertilizers and so on. And yes, I hand pull the weeds in the garden beds, but there are weed that they call here a variety of things — dolly weed/dollar weed — and it looks like something between a nasturtium leaf and a lily pad running well underground and standing up on white, fragile stems so if you try to pull them up they just break off and the runners keep growing underground. There are a few other weeds but this is the worst.
It has ruined all the beautiful pathways with pine bark mulch and it is making me a wreck. I don’t use chemicals for a great many reasons, but also I don’t want to kill off the beneficial insects and much of my garden areas are a wildlife retreat (little toads, lots of birds, squirrels and more). How does the organic gardener get rid of terribly invasive weeds? I mean I don’t weeding to a reasonable degree, and as a cottage gardener with thickly planted garden areas the weeds aren’t too bad IN the garden, but this stuff is just not to be believed. [/q]
[a]
I found this link on Dollar Weeds. Seems like to really get rid of it, you need to dig up the underground runners. I know it’s a pain, but I had to be tedious and do the same thing with this horrible Oxalis I have that sprouts every winter in my yard. In the meantime, maybe pooring boiling water will help to control it. It’s what I’m doing to keep the dandelions under control since pulling them wasn’t doing anything. I also use it on my walkways and it works fine – just a bit time consuming. [/a]
[a]
Somebody may have already mentioned this since I get the “digest” version… but if not, vinegar is a natural organic weedkiller, but it’ll kill *everything* so it’d be good for your pathways, etc. but probably not so good for flower beds. I use it to kill weeds in a stone walkway and it works fine. Doesn’t seem to bother the surrounding plants and it can’t be all that lastingly toxic because it does have to be re-applied every other month or so.[/a]
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